Written By N.P. Every human being must be proud of his or her native language, and if an acquaintance asks whether that language is worth studying, there should be not a hint of hesitation in convincing with facts why it is worthwhile. The Armenian writer Kh. Abovyan, being a polyglot himself, once said You are as many men, as the number of languages you know. My native language is Armenian, one of the oldest languages in the world. The fact that the Armenian alphabet was created in 406 AD is one important reason to become interested in it. Many languages that were spoken at that time, say Aramaic, Akkadian or even Latin, are now extinct and there is not a single trace of those languages except for a number of manuscripts that prove the existence of those languages. Armenian has not only survived through the centuries, but is nowadays an active language. If I was asked to choose a language to study, I wouldnt choose one based on the Latin alphabet. A language with a unique script of its own, like Armenian, would be my choice, for each word, expression or idiom is inherent in that language only. each letter of the alphabet even has a history of its own. Learning a language, whose written form only comes from the 5th century, gives the opportunity to read books on history describing the most important events in world history. Armenia is well known for its historians, who diligently wrote down all the current events of that time, and their manuscripts were saved and passed on to the future generations. Even world famous books, like Gilgamesh, were translated centuries ago into Armenian by the School of Translators, which existed long before universites did. Of course, one might say that the same Gilgamesh now is available in English as well, but I do believe the translation done centuries before is much closer in meaning to the original text, than the newly done ones. Armenia has a rich literature. Most of the influential books have been translated into different languages, but as a carrier of the language of the original text I can say the translations seemed so odd to me, because they cannot describe the same feelings and dont have the same tone as the original text has. Lord Byron travelled to Venice to study Armenian in a monastery. After years of studying the language and mastering it freely he wrote his famous expression Armenian is the language to speak to God. Today, surely, Armenian does not have economic an political power. Its neither an international language nor a trendy one. Thus, I wouldnt advise it to somebody who needs a second language just for a career or an extra point on his or her resume, but to somebody truly interested in world history, in the cultures of nations, in the destiny of those in the past. I would advise my language to somebody not afraid to face challenges.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 05:23:05 +0000
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